At this point if you have spare cash why not shell out $300 for a raw copy of your genotype? (yes, I know 23andMe provides other services) I’m sure many readers spend $100 on nice meals now and then. That’s one day. Your genotype won’t ‘depreciate’ in a literal sense, and more practically until whole-genome sequencing gets affordable within the next decade (i.e., < 10 years) 1 million SNPs is a pretty good deal. And not to be morbid, but it is probably best to get older family members typed now (though if they have had hospital stays you can probably later retrieve genetic material, it will be a bureaucratic pain).

The reason I’m posting this now though is that I received a notification about a $50 discount code from 23andMe. Here it is: YHPRD7. It’s valid for the next few days. $50 isn’t trivial for most people, so perhaps it will prompt a few here to go and purchase.

I finally bit the bullet. I was annoyed I missed the $100 off in June, but I’m tired of waiting. Thanks for sharing the discount code.

http://educationrealist.wordpress.com Education Realist

I was accepted into this study: https://www.cog-genomics.org/volunteer/ . It said “After you return this kit, we will genotype your DNA, and the data will eventually be available to you on this website, in a format compatible with many 3rd party interpretational tools.”

Is that the same thing you’re talking about, or something different? I wouldn’t know what to do with a genotype if it took me to lunch and never thought about getting it done, but I’m wondering if I’m getting it done without realizing it.

aks

I was thinking whether it might be better to wait for 23andme to launch better products like whole exome sequencing which they did launch on a pilot scale. Razib, is it a good idea to wait for that or just go for the present 1 million SNP chip?

Thanks!

https://plus.google.com/109962494182694679780/posts Razib Khan

#2, could ask steve, but i think you get MORE data.

#3, depends on what you want. i’ll probably jump from snps to whole-genome. if you are really interested in diseases, etc., probably wait. OTOH, if you are interested in genealogy there is no reason to wait.

http://www.squidoo.com/23andme-review familytreeguy

Tons of people are looking for a break on the $300 price. Especially when they are skeptical about using the service in the first place. Always love reading your work Razib.

aks

What do you think about this statement from the 23andMe website,Razib? Is is a good idea waiting more for them having a new SNP chip with larger no. of SNPs genotyped than the 1 million currently there?

Thanks!

23andme.com:
Once you’ve purchased our service and met your subscription commitment if applicable, you will have ongoing access to your data and the services we provide. But you should not expect that the price covers the cost of upgrades to our service or future platforms.

23andMe will continue to increase our genotyping capacity as technology becomes cheaper, faster and better. Each technology improvement will increase the capacity for which we are able to report results to our customers. Our customers have the option to upgrade or not as they choose. Each previous platform will continue to receive updates, however, because a good majority of the SNPs are copied over from platform to platform. Thus, at some point, the current platform that is available to you now will be superseded by another, more advanced platform sometime in the future. If you want to be genotyped on that newer technology it will require an upgrade and more money.

So, for instance, we’ve upgraded our technology in the past — going from our V2 chip that looked at half a million points in your genome to V3 which looks at one million. Existing customers had to pay to cover the cost of running their samples on the new chip. If we upgrade to a new technology, or add premium features to our service, access to those new technologies or premium features are not covered by the price of your initial Personal Genome Service.

Karl Zimmerman

I took advantage of the code. Already got my package in the mail and registered, but forgot to bring it today to put in the mail. Thanks muchly.

BTW, I don’t know the degree of ethnic information 23andme gives, but I have some (1/16th or so, assuming equal inheritance from four generations back) “Portuguese” ancestry which actually appears to be more likely than not Sephardic. Will there be any indications of this?

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Gene Expression

This blog is about evolution, genetics, genomics and their interstices. Please beware that comments are aggressively moderated. Uncivil or churlish comments will likely get you banned immediately, so make any contribution count!

About Razib Khan

I have degrees in biology and biochemistry, a passion for genetics, history, and philosophy, and shrimp is my favorite food. In relation to nationality I'm a American Northwesterner, in politics I'm a reactionary, and as for religion I have none (I'm an atheist). If you want to know more, see the links at http://www.razib.com